Urgent Care

Just What The Doctor Ordered

Patients wait in the Eisenhower Urgent Care waiting area - beautifully appointed with comfortable and stylish furniture.

You wake up on a Saturday morning with a painful sore throat and a fever, and don’t think you can wait until Monday to see your primary care physician. Or, perhaps you haven’t yet established a relationship with a doctor, and you have what you think may be a urinary tract infection. Or, family is visiting from out of town, and your grandchild has twisted her ankle and it’s starting to swell.

For relatively minor illnesses or injuries like these that require same-day care, but are not necessarily medical emergencies that warrant a trip to the hospital emergency room, Eisenhower Urgent Care is just what the doctor ordered. Staffed by physicians who are board certified or board eligible in Family Medicine, Internal Medicine or Emergency Medicine, and all of whom have staff privileges at Eisenhower Medical Center, Eisenhower’s three Urgent Care locations in Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and La Quinta provide immediate, professional medical care — without an appointment — from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.,Monday through Friday, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends and most holidays.

“Eisenhower Urgent Care is the only hospital-affiliated urgent care system in the Coachella Valley,” says Russell J. Grant,MD, Medical Director, Eisenhower Urgent Care.“This is important for several reasons.As a licensed outpatient department of the hospital, we are fully integrated with the Eisenhower Medical Center network which allows for a very comprehensive and complete medical record for each patient.When patients follow-up with their primary care physician or a specialist after an Eisenhower Urgent Care visit, all of our physician notes are readily accessible.”

“Conversely, when a patient who is part of the Eisenhower system comes to an Eisenhower Urgent Care, we have access to their medical record including previous physician notes, blood work, X-rays, emergency department visits or inpatient visits,” continues Dr. Grant. “Having all of a patient’s information in one centralized electronic medical record greatly enhances our ability to provide carefully coordinated care and ensures patient safety, especially if a patient receives care from more than one physician.”

In addition,Dr. Grant notes, should an Eisenhower Urgent Care patient require transfer to the emergency department or inpatient admission to Eisenhower Medical Center hospital, the transition is fast and seamless.

The quality of care available at Eisenhower Urgent Care centers is also unparalleled in the Valley.“Each of our clinics is staffed by three, sometimes four, providers, including certified family nurse practitioners and certified physician assistants, and there is a physician in the clinic at all times,” Dr. Grant says.“Unlike many retail-based urgent care clinics that utilize residents — doctors in training — our physicians are all board certified or board eligible, which means they not only have handson patient care experience, but also have undergone rigorous testing that qualifies their proficiency in a particular specialty.” The physicians and mid-level providers — certified Physician Assistants and certified Family Nurse Practitioners — are supported by a staff of registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses and medical assistants.

Each Eisenhower Urgent Care has twelve to thirteen treatment areas, and a comprehensive array of diagnostic resources and technological advances for optimal patient care.“There is anEisenhower Imaging Center adjacent to each of our centers so we can offer advanced diagnostic imaging including digital X-rays, CT [computed tomography], MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] and ultrasound,”Dr. Grant notes.“We also have a lab draw station at each clinic for blood work, along with on-site capabilities for rapid strep throat and flu screening, blood glucose monitoring, pregnancy testing and urinalysis for diagnosing bladder infections.”

In addition, Eisenhower Urgent Care offers convenient electronic prescribing.With this capability, a prescription can be sent via computer to the patient’s pharmacy before the patient even leaves the center — greatly reducing or even eliminating the wait time to have a prescription filled.

Follow-up is an essential component of any urgent care experience.“We see patients for appropriate follow-up,”Dr. Grant explains.“For example, if we treated a patient with a laceration that required stitches, we would see the patient to remove the stitches and monitor healing. If a patient needs follow-up care from a specialist, we help facilitate that appointment with one of Eisenhower’s network of specialists. For more routine follow-up, we will simply provide a referral.”

Urgent care is not, however, a substitute for having a primary care physician,Dr. Grant emphasizes.“When patients don’t have a primary care physician to manage their ongoing care, we always recommend that they get one and will provide a referral,”Dr. Grant says.“Having a relationship with a primary care physician is truly the best way to get the most appropriate and effective medical care, particularly for chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, asthma or heart failure.”

Nor is urgent care a substitute for the emergency department for very serious or life-threatening problems. (See Is It An Emergency?). But if you cannot get in to see your primary care physician soon enough, it is outside regular office hours, or you still don’t have a primary care physician, Eisenhower Urgent Care is here to provide prompt, professional medical attention for a range of illnesses and injuries that nonetheless require same-day care. In addition,Valley residents can turn to Eisenhower Urgent Care for routine adult vaccinations such as influenza, pneumonia, and diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP), and the centers can provide sports physicals for school-age children — all on a walk-in basis.

There are many different types of medical emergencies that require urgent care by a physician, but not all need to be treated in a hospital emergency room.

Patients have a number of options for immediate medical care: the Tennity Emergency Department on the Eisenhower campus, plus three Eisenhower Urgent Care facilities that treat patients on a walk-in basis and two new primary care programs also housed in Eisenhower Health Centers: the Eisenhower Primary Care 365 Program and Eisenhower Primary Care.

PRIMARY CARE •Primary care physicians are a patient’s best option for preventive care, the management of ongoing medical conditions, and routine procedures that can be handled through a scheduled appointment. •Primary care physicians coordinate a patient’s care among specialists where necessary.

EMERGENCY CARE•Patients with chest pain, shortness of breath, sudden weakness or loss of consciousness, or inability to speak, are at risk of heart attack or stroke. Call 911 immediately so the patient can be transported by ambulance to the emergency room. •For victims of a major injury or trauma, call 911 immediately. •Emergency care should also be sought for sudden severe pain, extremely high fever and convulsions, bleeding that does not stop, poisoning, a severe or worsening reaction to an insect bite or medication, or any head injury.